Ascent of Mount Siegel on 2007-10-05

Ascent Trip Report

On NV-208 about 10 miles E of US-395 and 1 mile W of Wellington, I turned N on Lower Colony Rd. After about 5½ miles is a four-way intersection where NV-824 goes right and Day Lane, on which I turned, goes left. After ½ mile, I crossed Upper Colony Rd and Day Lane became unpaved. After another ½ mile, I turned right on Red Canyon Road. After another ¼ mile, I took a side road that forks left at a sign that says "Red Canyon". The road becomes rocky but is still good for any street-legal vehicle. After 1.3 miles, the road entered Red Canyon at a wide campsite pullout on the right. I made it about 1¾ more miles up the road in Red Canyon. At about 5900 feet, I decided it wasn't worth the risk of a flat tire or getting stuck, so I parked and continued on foot.

I continued westbound up-canyon. At about 6750 feet, the road switches back sharply to the right and begins a climbing traverse into a basin. At 7000 feet, I turned sharply left onto a side road. At about 7550', the road traversed in and out of a drainage with tailings piles. Just after passing through a saddle on the ridge on the far side of this drainage, the road forks. You may take either branch, as the two branches rejoin after a few tenths of a mile. The road climbed into a broad grassy basin at 8000 feet. At a junction at 8440 feet, I turned right and headed up a gully, eventually joining the road that traverses the SE flank of Galena Peak.

At this point there are some choices: one can go over the top of Galena Peak and lose 200 feet to Galena Saddle, or one can stay on the road and descend 350 feet to Buckeye Creek and climb the 4WD road to Galena Saddle; it doesn't make much difference. I ascended the Galena Peak route, trying to traverse the E side of the peak to avoid the elevation loss to Galena Saddle, but it is steep and bouldery and I ended up going very close to the summit anyway. I descended the road to Buckeye Creek.